Retrospective: Duneraiders

My look at classic Traveller adventures and supplements continues this week with 1984's Duneraiders, a scenario I ranked as number 8 on my list of the top 10 scenarios published for the game. Like last week's Nomads of the World-Ocean, Duneraiders was written and illustrated by the Keith Brothers (with William H. Keith credited as its primary creator) for Gamelords. That's not the only similarity between the two adventures, as I'll soon explain. 

Before getting to that, I'd like to take a moment to talk briefly about Gamelords and its place in the history of both roleplaying and the hobby. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC), the company is probably best known today for Thieves' Guild fantasy products. For me, though, it was their many excellent Traveller releases that most captured my attention. 

Along with pre-Battletech, pre-Shadowrun FASA, Gamelords was a GDW-approved licensee, given a region of the Third Imperium setting to develop through their scenarios. This region included the Reavers' Deep sector, a frontier bounded by the Imperium, the Aslan Hierate, and the Solomani Confederation. The Deep features mostly independent worlds, some of them joined together into about a half-dozen small interstellar states that contend with one another and the aforementioned larger powers. It's a great setting for Traveller campaign, especially the particular style of Traveller campaign in which the player characters work primarily as mercenaries and agents provocateur.

In the case of Duneraiders, the characters find themselves on the backwater world of Tashrakaar, a desert planet in the Drexilthar subsector. While hanging out at its primitive, class-D starport, they witness a firefight on the loading dock. Duneraiders – human inhabitants of the open desert – are attacking a massive orecrawler with the obvious intention of destroying or at least severely damaging it. This is noted by bystanders as unusual behavior. Though the Duneraiders have no love for the mining companies that extract minerals from "the Flats" region of Tashrakaar for sale offworld, nearly all of their attacks are against the companies' operations, not permanent settlements. 

The adventure assumes the characters will inevitably intervene against the Duneraiders. In doing so, they also rescue a young woman, Arlana Jeric, whose father, Gill, is the owner and operator of Jericorp Mining, a small resource extraction business. It doesn't take long to realize that the "Duneraiders" are, in fact, goons in the employ of Jericorp's bigger and better capitalized rival, Dakaar Minerals, who are attempting to mask their involvement by disguising themselves as the desert dwellers. Unfortunately, the goons are successful in damaging the orecrawler, which was one of several owned by Jericorp. Without it operating, Jericorp may be unable to prove its claim on a stretch of the Flats believed to hold a motherlode of minerals.

That's when Arlana suggests that perhaps the characters would be willing to hire on as freelance troubleshooters for Jericorp, providing security for another orecrawler as its crew desperately attempts to locate the rich veins of ore they suspect are there. If the characters agree, this is where the adventure proper truly begins. The bulk of Duneraiders' 60 pages are devoted to describing the Orecrawler (with deckplans) and its 12-man crew, Tashrakaar and its ecology, and, of course, the titular Duneraiders and their culture. It's a very impressive package, providing the referee with everything he needs to run many sessions on this single planet of the Reavers' Deep sector.

If this sounds familiar, it is, because, in broad outlines, Duneraiders is another example of a very common classic Traveller scenario: the characters involve themselves in coprorate shenanigans on a backwater planet whose environment and native inhabitants are equal parts challenges and assets – just as we saw in Nomads of the World-Ocean. There's nothing wrong with this; it's a very fun set-up for an extended adventure. Furthermore, the Keith Brothers are very imaginative and each of the worlds presented in their work is genuinely unique. However, I suspect that a Traveller referee would be wise to avoid using too many of these scenarios in his campaign, lest they seem overdone. 

Duneraiders is a very good adventure about which I have fond memories playing rather than refereeing. That partly explains why I think so highly of it. The other is that there's something inherently compelling about the characters fighting against an exploitative corporation, aided by locals who better understand the hostile environment in which the battle must be fought. Unsurprisingly, Frank Herbert's Dune series was probably a major inspiration for this adventure, but I also expect the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia also influenced the Keiths in imagining Tashrakaar and its inhabitants. Though not quite as good as Nomads of the World-Ocean, Duneraiders is a fine example of classic Traveller adventure design and well worth a look.

Naked Sword

I saw this advertisement in issue #89 of Dragon (September 1984):

Since I can find no evidence of its existence, I assume that it never came out. Is that correct? Does anyone by chance know anything about this? From the scant information here, I can only assume that it was a warrior-centric counterpart to Thieves' Guild, but it's hard to say for sure.

My Top 10 Classic Traveller Adventures (Part I)

Never let it be said that I don't give the audience what they want. That's why the latest in my year end Top 10 lists covers the adventures of Traveller. Like my previous lists, this one comes with a couple of notable caveats. The first is that this list only considers adventures published during the era of classic Traveller, which is to say, 1977–1986. The second is that the adventures in question must have been published as stand-alone products rather than as, say, articles in the pages of The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. The cuts down on the number of possible candidates, it's true, but there are still many possibilities to consider, especially since I'm taking into account licensees like FASA, Gamelords, and Judges Guild (spoiler alert: there are no JG adventures on this list).

I should also remind readers that, like previous lists of this sort, I have deliberately limited it to adventures I've personally refereed or played. That eliminates a handful of worthy contenders for inclusion, to be sure, but not so many that I think it undermines the utility of a list like this one. Still, if in your opinion there's an obvious omission, there's a good chance it's because I don't have any direct experience with the adventure in question. 

10. Twilight's Peak

Twilight's Peak is the third adventure ever published for Traveller and it's a very good one. Indeed, I hesitated to place it so low on the list, because, in some respects, it's a near perfect example of the kind of sober, serious science fiction that Traveller represented (especially in contrast to most other SF RPGs at the time). Unfortunately, the adventure depends heavily on the learning of certain information via rumors in order to proceed from world to world across the Spinward Marches. Even then, these rumors often only lead to the search for yet more information, potentially leading to a long and tedious investigation into matters whose ultimate import is not clear. Admittedly, the final payoff is worth it and the scenario includes a number of interesting stops along the way, but, unlike The Traveller Adventure – which is not included on this list, by virtue of its having been included elsewhere – I found it to lack forward momentum at times. Still, it's well-done and, as I said, a solid example of the kind of restrained science fiction Traveller does better than most SF RPGs before or since.

9. Research Station Gamma

This is the immediate predecessor to Twilight's Peak in terms of publication and deals with many of the same general concepts and themes, most specifically the mysterious, extinct alien species known only as the Ancients. Unlike Adventure 3, Research Station Gamma is more straightforward and therefore easier to use. On the downside, some of that straightforwardness comes in the form of being what is effectively a "dungeon crawl in space" – a common flaw in some of GDW's early Traveller adventures. The fact that much of the opposition in the scenario takes the form of alien animals held inside the titular research station only further contributes to this feeling. On the other hand, the "dungeon" in question is an interesting one, with an unusual architecture that many old Traveller hands look on with some fondness. The adventure is also notable for being one of the few GDW publications to mention, let alone describe, robots, an element of science fiction Traveller largely glossed over.

8. Duneraiders

Published by Gamelords and written by William H. Keith, Duneraiders is a companion piece to the supplement, The Desert Environment (what a surprise!). The scenario itself deals with corporate warfare on the world of Tashrakaar, a mineral-rich planet located outside the borders of the Third Imperium. Tashrakaar has a native population, the so-called Duneraiders, who don't take kindly to the presence of offworlders and with whom the player characters must eventually ally – first simply to survive and later to thwart the machinations of the nefarious Dakaar Minerals corporation. If this all sounds more than a little inspired by Frank Herbert's famous novel series, you're not wrong. Fortunately, William H. Keith is a good adventure designer and he introduces enough new elements into the mix to ensure Tashrakaar isn't just a clone of Arrakis. I must confess to a lot of personal fondness for this adventure, because it's one of the few I first experienced as a player rather than as a referee. I had a lot of fun with it and that plays a role in its inclusion here.

7. Shadows

In addition to its other adventures, GDW published a series of "double adventures," consisting of two shorter scenarios published back to back – and upside down – in imitation of the Ace Doubles released throughout the 1950s and '60s. Double Adventure 1 included an adventure entitled Shadows that is a favorite of mine, due in no small part that it was included in The Traveller Book as one of its sample scenarios (which is where I first encountered it). The adventure focuses on the discovery and exploration of a series of ancient alien pyramids on an inhospitable world. Though another example of a "dungeon crawl in space," Shadows pulls this off exceptionally well, with lots of interesting details and plenty of scope for characters to get into trouble. The pyramids are also a potential source of some remarkable information about their past – nothing earthshattering, mind you, but historically valuable. It's a great scenario with which to introduce newcomers to Traveller and its particular take on science fiction adventure.

6. Death Station

Yet another double adventure and yet another "dungeon in space." Death Station involves the player characters being hired to travel to an orbital laboratory ship with whom their patron has lost communications contact. While he suspects that the problem behind the loss of communications is merely technical in nature, it's possible that it's something more, which is why he outfits the characters appropriately. As presented, Death Station is fairly bare bones, focusing primarily on describing the lab ship in great detail, complete with maps and aids for the referee. However, the true nature of the problem – a psychochemical drug experiment gone wrong – opens up lots of possibilities for a frightening situation. Insane crewmen, escaped lab animals, and lots of hidden ducts and crawlspaces present the perfect environment for a tense handful of sessions. I used Death Station in my Riphaeus Sector campaign a few years ago to good effect. 

Retrospective: The Free City of Haven

I have a longstanding fascination with cities in fantasy settings. If I had to guess, I suspect its roots lie in my love of Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, which seized my imagination in a powerful way. Even now, when I imagine a large city in a fantasy setting, my default conception is Lankhmar. As little as I think of Deities & Demigods, I was nevertheless very fond of the chapter devoted to Nehwon, particularly its entry on the inhabitants of the Street of the Gods (the so-called Gods of Lankhmar, as opposed to the God in Lankhmar). 

In the various campaigns I've refereed over the years, I almost always establish the existence of at least one large city. In the Emaindor campaign of my youth, there was the city of Zwardzand – a No-Prize to anyone who recognizes where I stole that from – and, in my Dwimmermount campaign, there was the city-state of Adamas. In both campaigns, the cities in question were never focal points; the player characters visited them for brief times but rarely stayed for long. Thus, the itch to referee an urban fantasy campaign after the fashion of Leiber's stories has never come to pass. Nevertheless, my interest in refereeing such a campaign in unabated and I continue to think about the possibility of undertaking it one day. 

The first RPG product I ever encountered that seemed geared to supporting such a thing was The Free City of Haven by Gamelords. No doubt some of you reading this will ask, not unreasonably, "What about City State of the Invincible Overlord?" Fond as I am of that venerable Judges Guild product, CSIO doesn't quite have the feel I'd want for such a campaign. It's too much of a kitchen sink, filled with monsters and other oddities that, while terrific for a certain style of fantasy, seem at odds with the noir-tinged sword-and-sorcery escapades of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Tastes differ, of course, but, for me, The Free City of Haven came closest to doing what I wanted.

First published in 1981, Haven was presented as a large collection of three-hole punched pages in a ziplock bag, along with many maps – not too dissimilar from the format of Thieves' Guild, published the previous year. Employing two columns and a tiny font, Haven is positively bursting with information, which is what wowed me about it when I first saw it. In addition to all the usual information you'd expect, such as a history of the city and descriptions of the major factions, it details innumerable NPCs, both major and minor. They run the gamut from influential members of the various powerful families that control aspects of the city to business owners, guards, urchins, and more.

In many ways, the NPCs are the heart and soul of Haven. While the product details each of the ciy's boroughs with information on significant buildings, it's the NPCs – or "personalities," as the text calls them – that bring the place to life. Reading through the entries, one feels as if Haven is populated by real people. Each described NPC has a name and game statistics, of course, but, more importantly, he has individuality. This helps the referee in portraying him and his role in the city, as well as the NPC's interests and goals, many of which are vital to spinning adventures within the city.

This NPC-centric approach was, I think, a novel one at the time. While there are plenty of descriptions of buildings and locations, they don't form the bulk of Haven's text. Instead, the emphasis is solidly on Haven's inhabitants and how they fit into the larger picture of this independent and faction-ridden city. For that reason, Haven provides many examples of encounters or scenarios to be had within the walls of the city. These vary considerably in size and complexity, with some being the kind of thing a referee could easily use to enliven a few minutes and others being the basis for an extended series of sessions. This is in addition to an extensive random encounter table that's divided up by city borough.

If I have a complaint about The Free City of Haven, it's that there so much material packed in its loose pages that it can be very hard to keep track of it all. At the time, when I was more mentally agile, this didn't bother me and I had little trouble remembering where to find the details I required. Nowadays, though, it's a fair bit harder to use. In that respect, it's very much an amateur product, especially when compared to the publications of TSR or Chaosium from the same time period. I know that a second edition of Haven was published as a boxed set in 1984, but, not having seen it, I can't speak to whether it also included an easier to use presentation. Even if it didn't, there can be little doubt that The Free City of Haven is a gem from the first decade of the hobby, a useful and imaginative fantasy RPG product I continue to admire. If I ever do get around to running an urban fantasy campaign, you can be sure I'll be taking a look at The Free City of Haven for inspiration.

Retrospective: Thieves' Guild

Despite my Hamlet-esque waffling about the merits of thieves as a character class in Dungeons & Dragons, I'm actually a huge fan of the archetype of the thief. From Bilbo Baggins to the Gray Mouser to Cugel the Clever, fantasy literature is filled with innumerable examples of thieves, burglars, and mountebanks as protagonists, so many that it could reasonably be argued that the thief is a much more foundational fantasy archetype than the cleric (but that's an argument for a different time). Consequently, I've long had a hankering to run a campaign in which all the characters are members of a criminal gang in a fantasy city. Not only would this be a lot of fun but it's a set-up that drinks deeply from the literary wells that watered the early hobby.

In thinking about this, I was reminded of Thieves' Guild, a 1980 product written by Richard Meyer and Kerry Lord, published by Gamelords (whom I knew well from their many excellent Traveller books). Intended as "the first in a continuing series of player and GM aids providing rules and scenarios for adventuring in the medieval underworld," Thieves' Guild was not, in fact, a mere add-on to D&D or other fantasy RPGs – though it could be used as such – but rather a complete game in its own right, released as 128 three-hole punched pages in a bag. Its system, known by the rather bland name of the "FANTASY SYSTEM" [sic], is clearly a close cousin of both D&D  (it has levels, for example) and Basic Role-Playing, cribbing elements of both, resulting in something that is simultaneously just familiar enough to be largely intelligible without much effort but just different enough that you need to keep checking the rules to see how various aspects of play are handled. 

Rules-wise, Thieves' Guild is probably most notable in two areas. The first is in its selection of available character races. In addition to the usual suspects of humans, dwarves, elves, and hobbits, there are also centaurs, goblins, kobolds, orcs, and pixies. There are also rules for cross-breeding these various races, should one care about such matters. More interesting, I think, are the skills, which, as one might expect, give a lot of attention to those used by thieves. There are also skills for many legitimate professions, quite a few of which have relevance in a campaign set in and around a large urban location. By most standards, the skill system is nothing special, but it's hard not to appreciate that the designers recognized the need to flesh out other professions in order to provide some context to the adventures of thieves. 

Intriguingly, there are no rules for magic in Thieves' Guild. Magic exists in the world of Gateway (as the game's setting is known) but it's not something thieves are likely to know. As in D&D, thieves can attempt to make use of scrolls, but it's a risky endeavor not to be undertaken lightly. More information is instead provided on combat, including various forms of non-lethal combat, since many thieves find it useful simply to incapacitate rather than kill (thereby leaving open the door for "rogues with hearts of gold" and similar characters). Disguises, fencing stolen goods, ransoming prisoners, and similar activities in which thieves might engage also get fair treatments, as do the workings of the Thieves' Guild and the legal system. None of these topics is covered at immense length, but the very fact that they're covered at all is a step up from most fantasy RPGs in 1980.

Where Thieves' Guild really stands out is in its scenarios, many of which are included after the rules. These scenarios are divided into categories, like "bandit," "highwayman," and "cat burglary," among others. In this way, the writers did a great service to referees and players alike, highlighting that the profession of thief includes more than just simple robbery. The breadth of scenario types is quite impressive and the scenarios themselves, while far from masterpieces, are nevertheless engaging. If nothing else, they offer the novice referee models to use in crafting his own, including maps of locations both outside and inside.

I never owned or saw Thieves' Guild back in the day, though I was aware of its existence from many advertisements in Dragon magazine. When I finally did see it years later, I wished I had encountered it sooner, as it's something I would almost certainly have enjoyed. Gamelords supported the line with supplements, each one offering additional scenarios and rules to expand the scope of a thief-centric fantasy campaign. The company also released a boxed set describing the Free City of Haven, another product I would have loved to have owned in my youth and only ever saw many years later. I have no idea how successful or well-received the series was, only that I think it remains a great idea and one I'd like to make use of at some point in the future.